Wake Up
by Black Stormraven
Summary: The Inquisitor has done something to Kanan, forcing Hera to face an enemy she never expected: her best friend. Hera/Kanan, pre-Rebels.


**Oh yeah, I'm fully onboard with this ship already. This is set after the A New Dawn novel (which I haven't read, but I can kinda guess at sorta), but before Rebels, so it's just Hera, Kanan, and Chopper on the **_**Ghost**_**. Everything in here I made up; I don't know anything about Hera or Kanan's pasts, or if the Inquisitor is a Force-sensitive (we already know he's not Sith, but not all Force users fall into either Jedi or Sith categories). I'm just playing in the sandbox. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"Kanan, stop! Wake up!" Hera dodged every slash, every slice of that lethal blue energy beam that he had always kept carefully hidden. Not once did she ever think it would be turned against her. _This isn't him, _she told herself repeatedly, barely missing another strike that would have severed her right lek if she had been just a microsecond slower. _This isn't Kanan. That monster's done something to him. _

She kept her grip on the blaster tight - Kanan was dangerous enough as it was; if he got a hold of it _and _his lightsaber she'd be dead before she could blink. But the thought of aiming the weapon at him...

Hera didn't have a chance to complete the thought before sizzling blue flashed across her eyes, almost blinding her. "Kanan, snap out of it! It's me! It's Hera!"

"LIAR!" he screamed. An involuntary shiver raced down the Twi'lek's spine at that word. She'd never heard him like that before. "Hera's dead, imposter!"

"What are you"- she toppled a stack of empty crates between her and her friend in an effort to buy her some time -"talking about? I'm right here!" His lightsaber cut through the metal like it was nothing. Hera shuddered to think what it could do to an organic body.

"Spoken like a true imposter." _That voice..._ "You saw it, Jedi. You saw the one you care for most cut down by stormtroopers. You held her in your arms as you felt her life draining out of her." The words spurred Kanan on even more; Hera was hard pressed to keep herself from being cut in two. "This deceiver dares take on her likeness. Are you going to allow such sacrilege to continue?"

"Keep your trap shut!" Hera shouted. Normally she wouldn't have dared talk to the Inquisitor like that with him so close (even if she couldn't see him), but she was desperate now. "Kanan, please listen. He's lying to you. I didn't die. I'm right here in front of you."

He wasn't listening. His eyes, once as pure a blue as the lakes of Naboo, burned a toxic yellow as he looked at her. She wasn't Force-sensitive, but the rage and grief and guilt that blazed in those terrifying eyes seemed to swirl around him like a physical storm. "How dare you wear her face, witch!" he snarled.

"Then relieve her of it." The Inquisitor's deep baritone voice carried through the domed room like some kind of omnipotent deity.

_Oh, you'd like the comparison, wouldn't you?_ Hera thought venomously. "You know what?" she yelled. "Once I wake him up, I'm coming for you next. And I won't be so nice to you!"

A laugh that seemed to rattle her bones was the only response. That suited Hera just fine. She'd rather not have the constant distraction of his taunts. She shifted her attention back to Kanan, who was now swinging his lightsaber so fast it appeared to be a solid shield of light. She didn't know what else to do: she aimed her blaster for his leg. Of course he blocked it easily. She didn't want to hurt him, just shake his focus enough for her to try to get through to him and snap him out of this induced insanity. "Kanan, please. You know it's me. You know my voice, you know my aura in the Force. Whatever he told you, whatever he showed you, it's a lie." Another slash, followed by a vicious kick, narrowly missed her. "Kanan! Fight through this, idiot! You know me!"

Her blaster was raised to fire another shot, but before she could squeeze the trigger it went flying out of her hand to clatter out of sight. That moment of stunned disbelief was enough for Hera to lose her focus for too long: a sudden invisible grip began crushing her throat. Kanan had one arm lifted toward her, his lightsaber finally still. She instinctively clawed at her neck to pry off the unseen fingers, but it was useless. She tried calling out to him, but all that came out were gasping, wheezing sounds that didn't even remotely resemble words.

_Oh, stars, he's going to kill me. _She felt her feet leave the floor and her body begin to move towards her sick friend. Today was a day for unexpected circumstances; just as she hadn't thought she would be on the receiving end of Kanan's lightsaber, neither did she ever think that she would die by his hand.

A distant _boom _sounded in the background. Although Kanan didn't so much as twitch, the sound was almost like music to Hera. As was the sound of the Inquisitor's curse and his fading footsteps. _Good boy, Chopper._ Those explosives she'd planted on her way into the facility would keep any Imperial agent busy for a while. Now she just had to not die before she could save Kanan.

"K-Ka-nggh!" She was close enough now to see that his eyes were not only yellow, but actually swirling with the Dark power that coursed through him. What exactly had the Inquisitor done to him to make him this way? When she found out, she would personally make sure that the monster suffered doubly worse before ending his wretched life.

Kanan brought her close enough to him that she could feel his labored breath on her face. The disgust in his expression, although borne out of lies, cut her to the bone. Gravity once again took hold of her and she fell to the floor, coughing and gasping. "You even stole her scent," he growled.

Hera shook her head violently, painted lekku flying around her. "It _is _me," she managed. "Why else would I be here trying to talk sense into you?" She chanced a look up at his face. A flicker of something passed over it. Doubt? Recognition? Whatever it was she took advantage of it before he could run her through. "I smell like an oil tank most of the time. Why would anyone want to copy _that_?" His right eyebrow twitched. She pressed on, slowly and shakily pulling herself to her feet. "Kanan, you know me. You know more about me than anyone. Remember when we got drunk that one night and I told you about my first boyfriend when I was eight? I only dated him for three days before dropping him." She stepped forward with each word. Slowly. Carefully. "He thought having a green-skinned Twi'lek girlfriend made him some kind of bigshot. Pretty big ego for a nine-year old. Remember that?" He blinked a few times; that was a good sign, right? "And the next morning I denied telling you anything of the kind? I didn't want you thinking less of me because of a moment of weakness."

Kanan blinked again, raising a hand to his head as if to stave off a headache. _That's it, you big idiot. Remember? Come on, snap out of it before we go up in smoke. _"You-You're lying." There was much less conviction in his voice this time.

Hera moved closer. "You know I'm not. You can feel it in the Force, right?" He stepped back. Whatever spell had taken him over was starting to falter. _Just a little more..._ "Kanan, I can assure you one-hundred percent I'm not dead. I'm standing right here." A second and third explosion made the floor shake. Her time was up. _Now or never, girl. _Taking a deep breath, Hera took Kanan's face in her hands and forced him to meet her eyes. "I'm right here," she breathed gently. She didn't give him a chance to push her away or start ranting again: her lips over his silenced any denial.

The kiss lasted only seconds, but it was enough. Kanan shuddered violently against her for the briefest of seconds, then relaxed entirely. His lightsaber deactivated with a whooshing _hiss_, and clattered to the floor. Hera pulled back and let out a thankful laugh when she saw the same blue eyes she had known for years. Clouded with confusion and just a hint of a spark, but still achingly familiar. "Welcome back...idiot."

Kanan didn't play along, not that she'd expected him to. She also didn't expect for him to pull her closer and kiss her again. His arms wrapped around her and held on as if she would vanish. Hera almost laughed into his mouth at the thought; she wasn't going anywhere. Not without him, at least. A trembling hand went to the back of her head, just below her lekku, and kept her from moving away. The explosions that rocked the facility seemed little more than background noise in those too-long, too-short moments.

"I...I saw you die," Kanan said when he finally pulled back for breath. His fingers trailed down her face, still not believing his eyes.

Hera shook her head and gripped that hand to press her cheek into the palm. "No, you didn't. It was some kind of hallucination, some trick. The Inquisitor fed you lies to turn you to the Dark Side." Attempting some levity one more time, she shot him a half-smile while combing her fingertips back up into the hair at his temples. "I always told you your temper would come back to bite you in the ass, Jedi." That got a smile out of him. A tiny, barely-there one, but a smile nonetheless. "Now come on, love. Let's get out of here before Chopper sets off the last bombs."

Kanan let her take his hand, calling his lightsaber into his free one, and lead him out of the room, away from the continuing explosions. "Wait," he called as they ran. "Bombs? How'd you manage that?"

Hera smirked to herself. "I've got a friend from Mandalore who's an expert with this stuff. She made me a few portable ones that don't show up on security scans. Cute as hell, too. She painted little smiley faces on each of them. They pack a punch, though. Chopper smuggled some in, I planted the rest along the way to rescue your sorry butt."

Heat and wind slammed into them from behind as the _Ghost _came into view just outside the building, but they kept running. "I'll never understand how you find these people, Hera."

The captain dashed into her ship and began the startup sequence, simultaneously pulling out her comlink. "Got him, Chopper. Now get out here before we take off without you." A series of beeps and tones came through the comlink. "Yes, he's fine now. Now get your can out here!"

Mere seconds later and the little droid was in view, using his mini rocket booster to safely fly out a window and onto the _Ghost_'s ramp. His photorecptor locked onto Kanan as he rolled passed. "Welcome back, little guy."

Chopper replied with a deep _boop-boop_ that would have been construed as sarcasm on an organic being.

"Yeah, yeah. Family's back together," Hera shouted hurriedly. "Now if you're done, let's get the hell out of here!"

With a speed and skill that would put most podracers to shame, the Twi'lek had her beloved ship off the ground and halfway into orbit when the building below collapsed in on itself. She gave a fierce grin at the sight; she hoped the Inquisitor was now at the bottom of that pile of rubble with his head smashed in.

* * *

"Hey."

Hera turned the pilot's chair to the doorway, passing a small stress ball shaped like a grenade (a gift from her Mandalorian friend) from hand to hand almost mechanically. "Hey, yourself. Everything okay?"

Kanan stepped into the small cabin, illuminated by the swirl of hyperspace outside the viewport, and sat down in the co-pilot's seat. Hera pulled her legs up to cross them in her chair as he passed. "Of course not." He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and stared at the floor. She didn't push him. She knew when he needed to work through something on his own. She watched intently as his back rose then fell with a deep breath. "I...I allowed myself to fall to the Dark Side," he eventually whispered, disgust and self-loathing in every syllable.

Hera's heart broke at the sound. "It wasn't your fault, Kanan," she said just as quietly. "You may be a Jedi, but you're still human. You still have emotions, and the Inquisitor exploited them."

"That's not the point." His gaze was hard and pained when he lifted his head to look at her. "I fell when I thought-" He cut himself off abruptly and sighed. "I know now it was a lie, but when it was happening...Hera, I _watched _you die. I _felt _that loss. I held you, felt your presence in the Force fade into nothingness. It was..." He shuddered.

Hera put her feet on the floor and leaned towards him, one hand going to his shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. It didn't really happen."

Kanan took her hand in his and rubbed his cheek against it. "I know. But it was torture nonetheless. I allowed the Dark Side to take me over...and I didn't care. Everything I'd been taught as a Padawan, everything I'd striven to practice and believe vanished. It was..._easy_." Another deep breath. "And it was easy to attack you when I thought you weren't you." A sudden spark of fear appeared in his eyes then. "Did I hurt you? I never even bothered to check."

Hera had to resist the urge to laugh; she wasn't sure he'd appreciate it while he was going through a crisis. "I'm fine, Kanan. Not a scratch. Close calls, but no contact. You gotta work on your footwork."

"I'm serious, Hera."

"So am I. We've been through worse, love." She brushed the backs of her fingers over his hair to keep him calm. "And we'll probably go through worse yet. But let me tell you something: you'll never have to go through it alone. So stop beating yourself up over it."

Kanan fixed her with a look that was at once confused, disbelieving, and in denial. Hera had a feeling he might have gotten a better pep talk from another Force-sensitive, someone who had had the same training and would know better what he'd gone through. But she was the only one here (well, and Chopper, but he wasn't a great conversationalist to begin with) and she wouldn't just sit by because she didn't have the same life experiences he had.

Kanan let out a sudden breath through his nose. "You make it sound so easy." She braced herself for another barrage of self-loathing. Instead, he gave her a tiny half-smile and kissed her wrist. "Thank you."

Hera smiled back, the biggest one she had managed in days. "You are very welcome, you big idiot," she said as she stood. "Now, it's been a long day what with saving your ass and burying the Inquisitor and all. I'm going to bed." Her palms flattened on his cheeks, her fingertips delicately stroking his skin. "Are you coming?"

This time he smiled in earnest; anxiety still showed in his eyes, but he seemed much calmer now that he'd gotten the worst of it out of his system. "I think I'll just sit here for a few minutes. Try meditating again. I'll be along in a bit."

"You'd better." She didn't have to bend far to place a kiss on his lips. This one, instead of a tool to snap him out of a forced state of temporary insanity, was loving, tender, and just a little too promising to be completely chaste. "I sleep a lot better with you beside me."

Strong arms wrapped around her thighs and held her close. "Miss me that much, huh?"

Hera giggled. "Well, it's mainly because if you're with me I know you're not off doing something stupid." Her fingers lingered on his cheek as she stepped out of his embrace. "Don't be too long."

"Don't hog the bed," he called after her.

"No promises," she responded just as lightly.

Hera fell into a half-sleeping state as soon as her head hit the pillow; she may have said it playfully, but she'd meant it when she'd said she slept better with Kanan at her side. Having his warmth surround her, his soft breath on the back of her neck, and his arm lazily flung over her waist let her pretend, for the briefest of moments, that the Empire wasn't on their heels, that life was actually relatively normal.

Her mind continued to swirl in abstract thought, sleep still just out of reach, when she felt the thin mattress depress behind her. A body pressed against her back and a hand slid around her waist under the hem of her shirt. Something soft brushed against one of her lekku, making her shiver pleasantly. She laced her fingers with his and held his hand there against her abdomen.

One last inhale to chase away every worry and hangup that kept her from sleeping, and Hera let herself abandon the mundane realm for the dreamworld.


End file.
